A mother sea otter tries to bite through a plastic bag covering the face of her pup. Eventually the mom was able to tear it off. / Provided/Terry McCormac, Save Our Shores

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The city of Salinas and Monterey County are on parallel tracks to follow other municipalities in the region and restrict the retail use of some of the roughly 18 billion plastic bags distributed in California each year.

On Tuesday, the county Board of Supervisors unanimously directed staff from the Department of Environmental Health to move forward with the first phase — an environmental impact study — toward a draft ordinance severely restricting plastic bags and charging a fee on paper bags.

Meanwhile, Gary Petersen, the director of the Public Works department for the city of Salinas, told supervisors the City Council has directed his department to begin the process of a draft ordinance and to explore cost-sharing with the county for the environmental study. He specifically cited the city’s storm drain management that is policed by state water quality officials.

“The best way to move forward is to ban plastic bags,” Petersen said.

As tentatively outlined, the would-be ordinance would ban most plastic bags and charge a fee on paper bags. Exemptions to the ban, for example, would include plastic bags used to carry produce and meat, according to a slide presentation by Mark Dias with the county Environmental Health Department.

There was little opposition Tuesday to the bag restrictions. Eleven people representing educators, environmental groups and one business spoke in support of the ban. Only one person, Bob Perkins, president of the Salinas Taxpayers Association, spoke up against the concept.

Perkins said requiring retail fees is beyond the scope of supervisors’ power, and the fees are effectively a tax. The only problem with Perkins’ logic is that any fees collected would not go to the county; instead the money would go to retailers to help them cover the costs of paper bags. Still, Perkins was adamant.

“It offends me personally,” he said. “I didn’t serve my country in Vietnam so that you can control my behavior.”

But the overwhelming consensus from the public was in support of the ban. Peggy Stap, the executive director of Marine Life Sciences in Moss Landing told the supervisors some of the best reasons to ban plastic bags came from children she teaches through the Boys and Girls Clubs in Salinas and Seaside.

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“It helps and animals and it helps us,” Stap said one little girl told her. Another little boy said plastic bags “will choke animals in the ocean and they will die.”

And in fact, they do. Laura Kasa, the executive director of Save Our Shores, presented a poster-sized photo taken in the Elkhorn Slough of a mother otter desperately trying to get a plastic bag off the head of her pup. The photographer said the pup thought the bag was a “toy” and was diving down after it. That story turned out well, in that eventually the mother was able to get it off before the pup suffocated.

Matthew Spiegl, an attorney for Sustainable Salinas, presented the supervisors with a petition signed by more than 1,000 people in support of a ban. The lion’s share of signatures — 770 — were gathered in the city of Salinas.

He reminded the supervisors the paper and plastic bags are not free. Those costs are factored into the price of items sold by the retailer. People bringing their own reusable bags are still paying for the plastic and paper bags handed out to shoppers who don’t bring their own bags, he said.

Restricting plastic and charging for paper “will separate out those who bring reusable bags and those who don’t,” he said.

One business owner, Jessica Grigsby of Kayak Connection in Santa Cruz and Moss Landing, said the Elkhorn Slough is a critical habitat for many migrating birds, and that the birds will become entangled in them when they are nesting. Plastic bags and bottles constitute the two top items plucked out of the slough by her staff, she said.

“Some will grumble at first, but then bringing reusable bags will quickly become second nature,” Grigsby said.

While the supervisors unanimously approved moving ahead with drafting an ordinance, there were concerns about charging for paper bags. Both Simon Salinas and Lou Calcagno represent areas in the county — Salinas in the south and Calcagno in the north — that are heavily populated by low-income farmworkers. Both support the plastic bag restrictions, but winced at charging for paper bags.

The initial charge options outlined by Environmental Health — only options; nothing has been officially drafted — included 10 cents per bag for the first six months, and then 25 cents going forward.

But there are several sources of free canvas bags for low-income communities. Robert Goetze of the Surf Rider Foundation said his organization is in a position to help by distributing free reusable bags. And Dias, from Environmental Health, said his department has 10,000 reusable bags to distribute in low-income communities.

“We need to start teaching people to stop throwing their refuse out of their cars,” Calcagno said, and suggested people can start bringing porcelain cups to fast food retailers. “I’m tired of seeing McDonald’s cups all over the road.”

Dennis L. Taylor writes about the environment for The Californian. Follow him on Twitter @taylor_salnews.